


Space and Time and Jack

by Llama1412



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-29
Updated: 2011-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23501113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llama1412/pseuds/Llama1412
Summary: He wanted Jack so, so badly. But he couldn't have him. He could never keep anything, not even his home. But then Jack became a Fact.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Jack Harkness, Tenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Kudos: 12





	Space and Time and Jack

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on livejournal and whofic.com in 2011. Posted unedited.

_Wrong_ , that's what he'd said. A fact that was not supposed to exist. And it was true. The only other impossible fact to ever exist had been destroyed. His fault, of course. And maybe that was why Jack's factness burned at his sense so badly.

Gallifrey, the first fact, is destroyed by his hand. Then, his TARDIS and his Rose make Jack into the next fact, the last one that will ever exist. Because he'll always exist. There will be no end for Jack, the TARDIS made sure of that. Gallifrey had been lost, but they wouldn't allow themselves to lose another love. And that was what made it so bad. Rose brought Jack back because she loved him, because she wanted him alive. But the TARDIS brought him back forever because of the Doctor. She knew he needed a constant, a fact in the universe to revolve around. And she made Jack into that fact.

It was wrong. He'd resigned his friend, his _Jack_ , to an eternity of life, all because he couldn't cope without his home. And that guilt had kept him running from said home, making everything worse.

But how could he not run? If he stayed, if he looked at Jack and accepted him as everlasting, he'd never be able to let him go.

He didn't do domestic for a reason. He _couldn't_ do domestic, not when it meant holding back someone he loved.

And Jack… he wanted Jack, of course he did. He always wanted them. But he couldn't keep them, he knew that. He had to let them go, had to let them continue their paths, become the very best there was. He couldn't keep them.

He could keep Jack.

If he was a fact… if he'd exist for eternity, an integral part of space and time, he wouldn't have to let Jack go, not to fate, to death.

And that's why he'd run, because that kind of temptation would only lead to damnation. Jack, with his charming smile and 51st century pheromones, was all too tempting as it was. To make him a constant, the one thing the Doctor _could_ have…

It was too much.

So he had to run. While he was running, he could pretend that the fixed point wasn't Jack. He could relive those days of his youth, running from order and home, but always with that comforting thrum of Gallifrey pulsing in his senses. He could run around having fun, imagining that he'd go back eventually. After all, home would always be there, right? It would never be too late.

He could pretend.

Only he _couldn't_. The fabric of the universe had been rewritten, weaving Jack right alongside space and time. They were inseparable and they made it so that the Doctor couldn't ignore Jack.

Every time Jack died – and it happened far too often, it really did – the entire universe held its breath, waiting to be set right. And it _hurt_ , that discord that stretched spacetime to its breaking point.

He'd tried so hard to ignore the Jack's beckoning call, despite the TARDIS nudging him in the right direction, but when he knew that that pain was the result of Jack's life slipping away from him in agony, how could he stay away?

The groaning of the TARDIS seemed to trill in approval as he opened the doors to see Jack Harkness look up at him with a smile.

He'd given in to temptation and tied Jack to him, but it would be all right. They'd travel through the universe composed of Space and Time and Jack, and it would be okay because he had his universal constant. His Captain was never going away.


End file.
